Houthis fabricate fuel crisis to revive black market, multiply profits

ADEN -- The Houthis are continuing to fabricate a fuel crisis in areas under their control to maximise their profits from the black market sale of gasoline, cooking gas cylinders and other petroleum products, officials and economists said.

Sanaa and other provinces under Houthi control have been experiencing a critical shortage of oil derivatives since September 4, when the group rolled out an "emergency plan" that restricted where these products could be sold.

After the restrictions were announced, the black market in Sanaa resumed the sale of gasoline at almost double the price, with 20 litres reaching 20,000 YER ($33) on the black market, compared to the official price of 12,000 YER ($20).

In Sanaa, long lines of cars have formed in front of the few gas stations that remain open.

In one of the queues, taxi driver Mohammed Hammoud told Al-Mashareq he had been waiting since the previous evening to refuel so he could go to work early in the morning to earn a livelihood and support his family.

He called on the authorities to dedicate a sufficient number of gas stations for the use of taxis, as they constitute "a source of income for many families".

"Stations were selling gasoline normally until the afternoon of September 4, when they were suddenly closed and the crisis was declared," Hammoud said.

Minibus driver Issa Naji pointed out how quickly black market vendors had spread out in the streets to sell oil derivatives, after announcement of the closures.

"The switch in the role of the seller between the black market and the stations makes us suspect that the matter was co-ordinated between the two sides," he told Al-Mashareq.

"The prices of derivatives on the black market are more than double their prices at the official selling stations, and this forces us to work one day and wait in front of the official stations the next day to get fuel," Naji said.

"This compounds the suffering of everyone in general and bus drivers in particular," he added.

Black market revival

"It is the Houthis who are preventing fuel ships from reaching the ports of al-Hodeidah, creating a pretext to revive the black market," Presidential Command Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi said September 7.

They are doing this "without regard for the suffering of citizens", he said, during a discussion with United Nations (UN) envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg of the latest developments in the peace efforts.

Yemen's Foreign Ministry said the Houthis caused the crisis, as since August 10, the group has been forcing oil derivative companies and traders to violate the import mechanism in place since April 2 for the ports of al-Hodeidah.

This has impeded the entry of ships carrying oil derivatives, pursuant to the terms of the truce, which went into effect April 2 and has been extended twice since, the ministry said, adding that the Houthis thereby have created an artificial fuel crisis.

The ministry accused the Houthis of manufacturing the crisis, with the aim of facilitating the import of smuggled oil from Iran and enabling private companies affiliated with Houthi leaders to import fuel directly.

It also accused the Iran-backed group of reviving the black market, which generates enormous amounts of money for the Houthis.

The Houthis are seeking with this rigged oil derivative crisis to pump into the black market the stored quantities of oil brought in since the truce took effect, thereby doubling the group's profits from them, it said.

New obstacles to truce

The April 2 truce "facilitated the entry of oil derivatives through al-Hodeidah port to Houthi-controlled areas", ending a supply crisis that had lasted more than six months, economist Abdul Aziz Thabet told Al-Mashareq.

The announcement of the truce also "eliminated the black market that had taken root in the streets of Sanaa, causing oil prices to skyrocket", he said.

Thabet pointed out that in the period prior to the declaration of the truce, high prices and the lack of oil derivatives led to a surge in food prices and transportation costs.

The disappearance of the black market, which is a major source of income for the Houthis' war machine, drove the group to disrupt the mechanism for importing oil derivatives agreed upon with the UN, he said.

The Houthis' goal in creating the crisis was to "impose new obstacles on the humanitarian truce and the possibility of extending it", economist Faris al-Najjar told Al-Mashareq.

The Houthis' goal is to facilitate the entry of Iranian oil and maximise its profits, political analyst Baligh al-Mekhlafi told Al-Mashareq.

The Iran-backed group "couldn't care less about the suffering of citizens and is interested only in achieving gains for itself that serve Iran's interests", he said.